Innovation is good, but the federal government must protect traditional industries and make sure new sectors aren’t built on the basis of weak contracts with workers, NDP leadership candidates said Sunday.

The rapid transformation of the services sector — alternatively called the gig economy, the sharing economy or ‘precarious work’ — must be confronted by more government intervention, the party’s four registered leadership candidates said during a debate in Montreal focused on youth issues.

The candidates were careful not to label technology as inherently disruptive, but said the source of economic disruption is “neoliberal policies” that could be remedied with more government programs.

“Just like the existence of precarious work, we can say that we have to hold our ground, that we don’t have to expect what corporations are putting in front of us, we don’t have to accept human jobs, people’s jobs, being taken away by robots,” said Churchill—Keewatinook Aski MP Niki Ashton. “Whether it’s automation or the uberization of our economy, we need to recognize that our generation, like any generation, needs to have access to dignified work.”

The Liberal government tried to “millennial-wash” their budget this past week by calling it an innovation budget, said Ashton. But Ottawa is also supporting free trade agreements and privatizations that hurt traditional sectors, she said.

Benefit programs like employment insurance, pharmacare, dental care and mental health services should be expanded in response, she said.

Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus said the federal government should institute a $15 minimum wage and create a national labour code that tackles the rise in unpaid internships and poor contract conditions. Ottawa should also make job guarantees a larger part of corporate bail-outs, he said.

“The next time Bombardier comes and wants $400 million from the federal government, we say ‘Yeah, we’ll give you the money, you make sure that jobs are being kept here in Canada and not shipped to Mexico like they are right now,’ ” said Angus.

“We can start to push back and use the tax code to do it,” he said.

New Westminster-Burnaby MP Peter Julian said the government can put more money into innovation while tilting it away from making life difficult for traditional industries.

“We’re last in the industrialized world in terms of public research and development. We’re second last in terms of the number of patents we produce. We’re last in the number of PHDs we produce,” said Julian. “We need to be putting in place an innovation agenda that doesn’t steal jobs, and that doesn’t have an incentive for companies to put in place technology that will actually take jobs away.”

A recent proposal by Microsoft founder Bill Gates to tax robots is “something that we do need to look at,” he said.

Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques MP Guy Caron said the labour movement must be strengthened to make sure for the changes in the economy aren’t a threat to working conditions.

The candidates dealt with a range of youth-focused topics during the rest of the debate, including marijuana legalization, tuition, indigenous and energy policies, as well as whether pineapple should be allowed on pizza.

“As long as we don’t have pineapple on poutine,” said Angus. “I don’t really care what you eat, but I’m going to draw the line and I will walk from this party if you bring this up for debate at the next convention.”